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If you haven’t seen them yet, you will. Walk-in health clinics are popping up across the country at retail stores including Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, Publix and others. These clinics typically lease space from their host stores and allow customers to see a nurse practitioner for routine services. The prices for these routine services are listed and the customer can conveniently fill their prescriptions at the host store’s pharmacy.
About 100 of these clinics are operating across the country, but hundreds more are in the works. Many entrepreneurs have recognized the need for a more consumer friendly option for accessing basic healthcare. Not the least of which is Steven Case, the former AOL chairman. According to Case, “Starbucks has 10,000 locations; healthcare is certainly more important.” Case, along with some other high profile executives, is now betting that his RediClinics at Wal-Mart, Walgreens and other retailers will be the next big thing. Mr. Case’s company, Revolution Health Group, has 11 RediClinics now running, but plans to open 90 others in various retail chains by the end of the year and 500 within three years.
These clinics are welcomed by most insurers as a way to save money. The consumers benefit from convenience and lower costs in an environment where they are responsible for more of their own healthcare costs. The uninsured typically find the clinics more affordable than most other alternatives. Even some family physicians say the clinics have their place in modern healthcare. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics at Princeton University, says that “Primary Care is a neglected field in the United States, lagging other economically advanced countries. The clinics can teach the rest of our health system how primary care could be done and brought to the public.”
Of course, there are some doctors who are not so fond of the clinic arrangements. They stress the need for patient safety and a family physician that gets to know the family and keeps a complete health record that can help determine the underlying cause of the ailment. Although some physicians are fearful of losing business to the clinics, others agree the clinics can fill a need if they stick to a limited scope and provide care to those who are mildly ill.
Our research did not uncover when these clinics will be opening in South Florida, but it is likely just a matter of time. So the next time you are shopping, don’t be surprised if you see a clinic next to the pharmacy.
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